23 July 2011

Copenhagenize's Airport Shuttle in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro - Airport Bicycle Shuttle from Copenhagenize on Vimeo.
There are very few cities in the world where you can get picked up at the airport by friends on bicycles and then ride into the city on safe, separated bicycle infrastructure. Rio de Janeiro, however, is one of those cities. The Santos Dumont airport in Rio de Janeiro
is a smaller airport located only 2 km from Rio's downtown business center. After my talk and meetings in Sao Paulo for Copenhagenize Consulting I flew into Santos Dumont.

Some friends were picking me up by bike. On a cargo trike that would bring a folding bike to the airport and carry my baggage back to my friend Tiago's flat in Le Blon. Another friend, Ze Lobo, from Associação Transporte Ativo - Active Transportation came along, too. The weather was great and we set out in the late afternoon. A hundred metres or so from the terminal we hopped onto a bike path and never left bicycle infrastructure for most of the 16+ kilometre ride.

Okay, except when we took a detour to a bar to have a beer and some snacks, but that was through a quiet, residential neighbourhood with 30 km/h zones.

What a brilliant way to arrive in a city - to ride a bike through it. You can ride from the airport in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, of course, but there are also great train or metro connections. In Rio it is brilliant that you can ride if you don't want to take the metro or a taxi or bus.

14 comments:

I'm sure in half an hour of web browsing I could learn everything there is to know about Rio, except the ONE thing I care about, that this video shows. Maps don't work. Bikely is overran by Rambo types mapping mountain descents. A video takes me right there to the bike track, and as always, isn't it right by the water! So nice of cities to give their best to those of us prepared to haul our own weight.

They are planning a high-speed railway between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The journey will take 90 minutes and they're hoping to have it ready by 2015, but as far as I can tell they haven't started building it yet.

You should get to know Belem, capital of the state of Pará, and its airport Val-de-Cãs, the biggest hud in Caribe (yes, it's brazilian caribe).

Although it's in the midle of a autobahn, it has segregated infraestructure for bike since Nazaré, in the center of the City (and it was the 4th biggest city in Brazil until 1945 - steel very cosmopolitan, with a beatiful italian neoclassic Histocial Center) until the hall of the airport.

Have a look -> http://ultimobaile.com/?p=2846

In general, the cyclng system and pedestrian system of the town is incredable! - although it choosed for shared infrastruture with lower speed.

You should start a list of 'bikeable' airports :- Berlin Tempelhof (DE) (R.I.P), was the best airport in the world. Beautiful landing, small terminal, gorgeous architecture and right in the center. You could almost bike from the plane to the street.

- Stockholm (SE) Bromma is also very bikeable- Brussels Zaventem (BE) is a bit far (13km from center) but there is bike path few know about. Not always a joy to ride, but definitely an option. For an international airport it's quite surprising.- Salzburg (AT). Don't remember the bike path but I walked there once from the center of town, so it should be bikeable too.

Midway (MDW) airport in Chicago is nestled amongst neighborhoods and sits within the city grid, so it's very easy to bike there. There're over 100 bike parking spaces (mainly used by customers taking the train).

Biking to O'Hare (ORD) is next to impossible and against their rules. Apparently the airport police will stop you from biking in the property. But there are bike racks at the airport!

You should perhaps have mentioned that the airport in question is the one for regional flights (Santos Dumont - SDU). Biking to the international airport (Galeão - GIG) would be a much more daunting endeavour...

It's amazing how Brazil has changed in every aspect possible in just as little as what, 10 years? They are just so ahead of the pack now! Must be their oil and their hot, and I mean, very hot and hard-working people.

Kilometres cycled by Copenhageners so far today

Copenhagenize.com is the blog of Copenhagenize Design Company. Online since 2007 and highlighting the cycling life in Copenhagen and around the world.

40 years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 41% of the population arriving at work or education do so on bicycles, from all over the Metro area. 55% of Copenhageners themselves use bicycles each day. They all use over 1000 km of bicycle lanes in Greater Copenhagen for their journeys. Copenhagenizing is possible anywhere.